Another Member of the Tea Party. (No, Not THAT Tea Party!)

This exquisite aristocrat in her elegant molded Edwardian gown is a variation of the literary lady reading the newspaper as part of the terrific trio of tea partiers by Galluba and Hofmann.  She retains her original wooden chair adorned with ormolu ornaments and her full, lush mohair wig.  Although her chair is not marked, she is incised under the edge of her skirt "4990."  Of the finest bisque and workmanship, she is 7 inches tall.

REPRODUCTION WARNING!!!!

On this blog, I have repeatedly warned collectors about reproduction bathing beauties and all-bisque dolls made by the Belgium company, Mundial (aka Keralouve) that have flooded antiques and flea markets and on-line auction and sales venues, where they are often misrepresented as old.  Although the quality of these items is often far below that of the antique originals, it is good enough to fool many collectors and dealers, especially when the items are aged with applied dirt and rust spots.  I have just discovered that Dollmasters, a spin-off of Theriault's Auctions, which specialized in artist and reproduction dolls, old store stock, and reproduction doll clothes, has become Florence and George and the spring catalogue is offering a variety of Mundial bathing beauties (see pages 10, 11, and 37; there is also a copy of a Schafer and Vater figurine on the back cover).  The catalogue states that "Cast from the original designs, you'll find it hard to distinguish from the rare and sought originals - except that ours are stamped "f&g" on the underside."  While it is good that these, unlike the rest of Mundial products, will be marked to indicate that they are reproductions, the problem with stamped marks, as collectors and dealers learned from the re-issues made by the now defunct German Doll Company, is that they can be removed by unscrupulous sellers.

Bottle Babe

Perhaps this bathing belle seems to be slyly smiling because she has a secret. . . .

 

 



. . . .this beach babe is a bottle, perfect for concealing a secret stash of hooch.

 

  

And at 7 inches high and 6 inches long, she could contain quite of bit of booze.  This is one woman who really knows how to hold her liquor!  There are no marks and she is made of a low-fire ceramic.  Hertwig and Company of Germany produced bathing beauties, figurines, and other items in this type of ceramic, which the company advertised as "feinsteingut."  Her modeling and pose do resemble many of Hertwig's flapper bathing beauties from the 1920s and 30s.